Atlanta-based stylist Brent Hardgrave looks at this market as untapped. When he is not traveling as an educational and artistry ambassador for Aqua Hair Extensions, Hardgrave runs his concierge hair service, My Beauty Butler, and works out of Atlanta’s Jamison Shaw Hairdressers once a week.

Between My Beauty Butler and his weekly stint at Jamison Shaw, Hardgrave spends more than half his time on extension work, the bulk of that being ﬁller work.

“Women want a thicker ponytail for much the same reason as women put ﬁller in their cheeks—they lose volume and density,” he says.

Hardgrave has found this segment to be emotionally fulﬁlling.

“If you can restore a client’s hair and give them back themselves, that’s huge,” he says. “The happy tears are crazy.”

Although initial proﬁt doesn’t come from putting extensions in, the re-tape is pure proﬁt, according to Hardgrave.

After the initial service, a client should pre-book their maintenance appointment for 8-12 weeks, depending on how fast their hair grows. At $30 per panel to remove and re-tape extensions, a client with 20 panels of hair is looking at $600 for the hour-long service. Working six hours a week at Jamison Shaw, he grossed $60,000 in services last year.

As one of the owners and a lead educator/coach of the Summit Salon Business Center, Michael Cole is in a unique position to observe how some of the best salons leverage social media to grow their businesses.

The trio of experts on a panel at Salon Digital Summit discussing the business of getting personal on Instagram included stylists Christina Kreitel and Christopher Smith, and Natalie Boos, director of marketing for the Business of Balayage.